Micky Moody and Papa George- The Red Lion, Isleworth, UK 3/2/14

The Red Lion is a quite famous music club in the North London suburb of Isleworth, not far from Richmond. The first Sunday of every month, Micky Moody (Whitesnake) and this friend Papa George play a couple of sets of old Blues standards and sometimes have some specials guests. Sue had seen them before and clearly so had a lot of the other people here. The place was nearly full when they started about 15:30 opening with Sweet Chicago. Papa has a great blues voice and plays mostly his steel body acoustic guitar while Mickey switches between his telecaster, Les Paul and acoustic guitar. Micky plays some really nice guitar leads and slide.  Next up was The Crawling Kingsnake with a mid-section of Whole Lotta Love from Led Zeppelin. They would through in some really short teases here and there in a number of songs if you were really paying attention. They did a lot of improvised and long solo sections in each song. All Over now (I love the Molly Hatchet version) into the really great song, Same old Blues. I also love the Allman Brothers version. This is a very nice and intimate place to see acts play. It was clear that this was still a family place as well as people had come to have a beer and brought their kids as well. The set ended with Walking Blues.

They took about 20min break and I spent some time talking with a really nice guy named Steve Goslin, who would guest with the band on harmonica in the 2^nd set. He had been playing harmonica since he was 14 years old. He said he played with Fleetwood Mac for 4 months in 1967. Very nice guy. He said he thought Sue looked familiar and it turns out he has done some freelance work as a genealogist at the same place Sue works. Anyway, the next set started with One more Dance with a lot of different small teases in this long song. Steve came up and played some cool harmonica on Catfish Blues. They did a cool version of the Lowell George song, Put on your Sailing Shoes. Rollin’ and Tumblin’ was next even though Micky said they were going to play Come into my Kitchen. The last song we saw they had a lady Ms.Maars, come up and she had a fantastic voice and Steve also joined in as they all traded solos. It was a fun free gig on a Sunday afternoon. They went around with a cup and asked for donations. We gave them a couple of pounds. They also had some really good beers on tap. I tried the Redhead red ale and the Double Hop Monster IPA!

Set I- Sweet Chicago, Crawling Kingsnake>Whole Lotta Love>Crawling Kingsnake, All over Now, Same old Blues, Blues with a Feeling, Walking Blues

Set II-  One More Dance (with a tease of My Favorite Things, James bond movie theme), Catfish Blues, Put on your Sailing Shoes, Rollin’ and Tumblin’, ??